Australia’s History and Background of Migration and Refugee Policies – Lessons for the EUand Its Member States?

This paper explores Australia’s history and background of migration and refugee policies and examines the possibilities of applying the Australian solutions in the European Union. It has often been assumed that the history of Australia’s migration and refugee policies and the solutions it has applied are not relevant for the European Union (although they are suffi cient, albeit controversial, in the case of Australia). In order to verify this assumption, fi rst the origin and the current rules of Australia’s migration policy are presented and described, and then the determinants of immigration to Australia are indicated. Next, the overall state of relations between the EU, its Member States, and Australian immigration matters is explored. The main research questions posed in this text concern the key points of Australia’s immigration policies and its determinants, as well as the current state of the EU’s and its Member States’ relationship with Australia with respect to the refugee crisis and immigration. The paper ends by offering conclusions with respect to the above.